Letter to the editor

This is a letter to the editor that I wrote in response to a letter from Rabbi Seymour Prystowsky the Jewish Exponent:

Rationality, Rabbi, Leads You Right to the Divine

I appreciate Rabbi Seymour Prystowsky’s position regarding a rational approach to Torah study (Letters: “Rationality Should Guide Us When Teaching Torah,” Feb. 23). However, his implication that it is irrational to believe that Torah was communicated directly from God flies in the face of a plethora of evidence and thousands of years of “the best of Jewish scholarship.”

I find it ironic that he brings proof to his position from Maimonides, who considered the divinity of Torah to be one of Judaism’s fundamental principles and who brought rational evidence to support this position.

Furthermore, without belief in the divine nature of Torah, morality becomes subjective, Judaism devoid of real meaning, and as research shows, Jews increasingly disengage from their tradition.